Monthly Archives: February 2009

“We experience the side-effects of Lewis’ pity-mongering every day, when people see us as victims rather than as contributors, as recipients of handouts rather than equal citizens Every dime raised has been at cost of our dignity.”

Los Angeles, Ca. – Disability community leaders from across disability advocacy will protest the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to grant Jerry Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at this Sunday’s Oscar Awards ceremony. Lewis has described disabled individual is “half a person” and referred to a wheelchair as “a steel imprisonment.”

For more than two decades, disability rights advocates have objected to Lewis’ portrayal of life with a disability as tragic and pathetic. In response, Lewis snarled, “You don’t want to be pitied because you’re a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!”

Dismissing the disability community’s objections, the Academy has decided to proceed with the award. In a letter to the activist group The Trouble with Jerry, Academy director Bruce Davis compared Lewis’ insulting, outdated attitudes to “some scratches in the paint job… of a Lamborghini.”

“To outsiders, Jerry Lewis may be perceived as a humanitarian, but to us Lewis personifies one of the biggest barriers facing people with disabilities: outdated attitudes,” said author and activist Laura Hershey, a protest organizer. “While the Motion Picture Academy has chosen to award Lewis the Hersholt award due to the money he has raised on his MDA Telethons, we counter “The cost is too high. Money can’t buy respect,” said Hershey. “We experience the side-effects of Lewis’ pity-mongering every day, when people see us as victims rather than as contributors, as recipients of handouts rather than equal citizens Every dime raised has been at cost of our dignity.”

Over 30 organizations endorse The Trouble with Jerry campaign, and to date over 2600 individuals have signed a petition protesting the award. The petition states in part, “Rather than working for equality and social inclusion of disabled people, the MDA Telethon portrays us as hopeless, pathetic, eternal children.’”

Demonstrations will take place during Oscar weekend in Los Angeles and around the US. Local LA protest schedules and locations are as follows:

Correspondence between The Trouble with Jerry and the Motion Picture Academy, as well as some history of disability rights protests against Jerry Lewis, and current protest information, can be found at http://TheTroubleWithJerry.com .